Controlled disintegration of downhole tools

Abstract

A downhole assembly comprises a disintegrable article comprising a metal, a metal alloy, a metal composite, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing; the disintegrable article being corrodible in a downhole fluid; a current source configured to supply electrons to the disintegrable article and to delay or reduce the corrosion of the disintegrable article in the downhole fluid; and a controller configured to control the supply of electrons to the disintegrable article.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of an earlier filing date from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62 / 404,924, filed Oct. 6, 2016, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND[0002]Oil and natural gas wells often utilize wellbore components or tools that, due to their function, are only required to have limited service lives that are considerably less than the service life of the well. After a component or tool service function is complete, it must be removed or disposed of in order to recover the original size of the fluid pathway for use, including hydrocarbon production, CO2 sequestration, etc. Disposal of components or tools has conventionally been done by milling or drilling the component or tool out of the wellbore, which are generally time consuming and expensive operations.[0003]Recently, self-disintegrating or interventionless downhole tools have been developed. Instead of milling or drillin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent is about a system that can remove a metal device in a well without causing damage to the surrounding environment. The system uses a current to supply electrons to the metal device, which helps to protect it from corrosion while the device is being operated on. The use of this system can prevent damage to the well and improve the efficiency of downhole operations.

Problems solved by technology

Oil and natural gas wells often utilize wellbore components or tools that, due to their function, are only required to have limited service lives that are considerably less than the service life of the well.

Disposal of components or tools has conventionally been done by milling or drilling the component or tool out of the wellbore, which are generally time consuming and expensive operations.

One challenge for the self-disintegrating or interventionless downhole tools is that the disintegration process can start as soon as the conditions in the well allow the corrosion reaction of the engineering material to start.

Thus the disintegration period is not controllable as it is desired by the users but rather ruled by the well conditions and product properties.

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